


I want to breathe, I hate this night

by HelgaHeason



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst and Feels, But don't worry he lives, Connor & Upgraded Connor | RK900 are Siblings, Connor being a good brother, Gavin Reed Not Being an Asshole, How Do I Tag, Inappropriately timed humour (blame Gavin and Nines), Inspired by Detroit: Evolution, M/M, Nines gets shot, Nines is a Little Shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:49:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22806616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HelgaHeason/pseuds/HelgaHeason
Summary: On a mission trying to hunt down a copycat of the android serial killer, Nines is badly injured. Gavin’s there long before the medics arrive, and while trying to keep Nines awake to prevent death or concussion, begins to realise that there’s much more to Nines than he first thought - and that hefeelsmuch more for Nines than he first thought.(feat. Connor being a protective big brother)
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Comments: 2
Kudos: 125





	I want to breathe, I hate this night

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is inspired by that one shot of Gavin and Nines in the alley, Nines looking all pale and ill and Gavin holding his face.
> 
> I’ve always called the RK900 ‘Caleb’, but he’s named ‘Nines’ in Detroit: Awakening and Detroit: Evolution, so I rolled with it.
> 
> The lines in italics are Gavin’s, and the lines in bold are Nines’.

Gavin’s heart raced, pulsing at the speed of sound. It wasn’t uncommon for either him or Nines, or indeed both of them, to be injured while on a mission. In fact, it was a more frequent occurrence than it wasn’t, and Fowler usually had medics waiting back on the bullring for when they got back (and on standby if one or both of them were knocked unconscious or unable to move). Despite the frequent injuries and varying degrees of such, neither of them had been shot in the chest. Such an occurrence was extremely rare, and when it happened, the victim usually died. The last time it had happened in the DPD was approximately a year ago - the victim was Connor, who was shot by an enraged deviant, and had returned the next day as if nothing had happened. Granted, he seemed to have been suffering from amnesia and didn’t recognise a thing about the police department, but when given a (very brief) lowdown by Fowler, everything clicked. He was back to his usual self within mere moments. Gavin later found out via the grapevine that Cyberlife had multiple RK800 bodies stored away, and when the conscious one was “killed”, the memories were simply transferred into a new body. While originally finding that incredibly annoying, he now just found it perverse - a disrespect to the dead, almost. If you could consider androids properly alive.

“Reed, he’s… We’re sending medics out, but I have no idea as to if he’ll be alright. He’s an android, they’re completely different to us, and we still don’t know _shit_ about them.”

Fowler’s voice in his ears, ringing in his skull from his phone volume being too high, broke him out of his thoughts and returned him to the moment. Although, truth be told, he wanted to be anywhere but the moment. If the moment was one wherein his partner more than likely died, he wanted out. But, still, he pressed on, following the tracker that Connor had had the sense to stick in the heel of Nines’ left shoe. When it came to his little brother, Connor really wasn’t messing around. The tracker led him to a dark alley in the middle of nowhere, and the signal cut out. Gavin paused, looking at his phone oddly. He’d lost the signal to Nines’ shoe tracker, and was stuck in the seedier side of Detroit. Worst thing was, the android he was searching for was on death’s door.

**“I’m right here, Detective…”**

A slightly shaky voice - fuck that (who was he kidding? Himself, probably) _extremely_ shaky voice - came from somewhere near his foot, and he looked down with a carefully controlled expression of abject horror on his face. It was Nines, looking all the worse for wear. Vibrant blue blood spattered around the floor, the epicentre of which was the obvious indentation in Nines’ chest. To no-one’s surprise, the blood had stained the android’s beloved white jacket blue - Gavin would never understand why Connor and Nines loved their jackets so much despite hating Cyberlife and all it stood for, but he supposed it was really the only thing they had of themselves to take pride in - and had also mixed with the rain in some places. If he was honest, Gavin felt mildly sick. He coughed a little, and crouched down, gently pushing aside the jacket and part of Nines’ carefully tailored shirt to see the full extent of the damage - and, oh lord, he wished he hadn’t. All things considered, it was nowhere near as worse as it could’ve been. The bullet had missed the thirium pump completely, and instead had punctured a lung. Nines had been insanely lucky in that aspect, as Gavin was fairly sure Connor had mentioned pretty recently that Cyberlife had stopped manufacturing androids and parts altogether, and the only place you could get parts now was the black market. A punctured lung was far easier to fix than it was to find a new thirium pump, that was for sure. But despite it not being as bad as it could be, blood was staining a hell of a lot of the floor, Gavin’s hands, Nines’ shirt and jacket, and the wall the android had collapsed against - and Gavin had never had any desire to see Nines’ internal organs. He’d seen Connor’s once, and that was enough to make him feel ill for about a week.

_“Nines, can you hear me?”_  
**“... Yeah…”**

Gavin was amazed, and a little shocked, as to how steady his own voice was. It should’ve been far shakier, like his partner’s (which was all over the place). Still, he needed some faux-confidence, and his extremely steady voice was perfect for that. He pressed down on Nines’ left shoulder, far harder than he would normally, and the android winced. He let go almost immediately, breathing out a little shallowly, but relieved that there was still something present for Nines, and that was that he could feel it when someone put pressure on a limb. If he couldn’t, that was bad. He could, so it was some slight comfort to Gavin that he would be some degree of marginally alright for the time being.

_“Sorry, if that hurt you.”_  
**“... Don’t… Don’t worry, about it.”**

Nines’ eyes flickered over to Gavin’s, and it was almost no surprise at all to see a heavy haze settling in them. Now that he paid attention, the colours of Nines’ blood and his eyes weren’t too different. At least, not in this light. They’d look very different in the bullring and when the haze cleared, but for now they were similar. Even with the haze, there was a sparkle in his eyes, one very similar to the sparkle in Connor’s. It was difficult to describe. An odd hybrid of childlike joy and highly intelligent, almost cold perception, the two ends of the emotional spectrum balanced on a knife edge. The fear caused by this sparkle was only amplified by the blueness of his eyes - beautiful, but cold too. Connor’s eyes were softer and more subtle, thanks to their warm chocolate brown. Once Connor had figured out the ins and outs of fear, and gotten to know his little brother, even he admitted he was scared of Nines’ eyes when there was particular conviction present. That had made Gavin laugh a little. Connor was difficult to shake, and something within Gavin found the entire situation inappropriately funny.

_“Can you see me?”_  
**“... Am I… Supposed to?”**

Gavin sighed a little. Nines’ spatial awareness was intact, clearly, but the combination of bloodloss and low light had messed with his ability to see. That was fine, it would return to normal later. Gavin dimly wondered where the hell the medics were, before returning his own borderline desperate gaze to Nines’ hazy gaze. He stifled an inappropriately timed snort. That rhymed. 

_“What happened? Can you remember?”_

There was a long, sullen, heavy pause. Gavin could practically see the cogs in Nines’ head turning, and watched with dismay as the LED on his forehead started blinking. It was already an angry red, but was now flashing too, struggling with the effort of keeping its host alive. The pause stretched out, and Nines finally spoke in what felt like a millennia later.

**“... I cornered… I think, the copycat… I cornered him… Had him pinned, and then… I got shot, by… I’m not sure. I think it was… Perhaps a friend?”**  
_“Did he get away?”_  
**“... Yes. I’m sorry.”**

Gavin allowed himself to chuckle a little. 

_“Don’t be. Accidents happen.”_

A small smile emerged on Nines’ face at that, breaking his pained grimace, and a smaller smile emerged on Gavin’s face too. It was a brief, tiny, fleeting thing, but a smile nonetheless. His phone beeped with a series of rapidfire messages in very quick succession, and he snorted.

_“Connor’s got all three of them. Knocked one out, trapped another in a police building, and somehow managed to throw one off a balcony, despite having been nowhere near a balcony. Don’t worry, he didn’t kill him… Just… Very badly injured him.”_

Nines snorted weakly, wheezing slightly. Connor was mildly disconcerting at the best of times, still trying to shake off what was left of his purpose as a deviant hunter, but when angered, he was truly terrifying. He was likely on the warpath now, and had incapacitated two of the people responsible for the serious injuring of his little brother. One had been cornered and trapped in one of the DPD’s office blocks. When first told by Connor that he was his older brother, and would do his best to keep him safe, Nines was sceptical. That surely couldn’t have been the true purpose of their existences - to be civil, and eventually familial and pretty close, with eachother? Either way, it happened, and Nines, while complaining outwardly over how protective Connor seemed to be, inwardly found himself rather enjoying it. He’d asked at some point if Markus could be considered a brother too, due to their similar model numbers, and Connor had answered that he probably was - he just kept himself distant and to his corner of Detroit. He’d only met their saviour brother once or twice, but it was enough to be content with. Markus had his own family, Connor and Nines had theirs.

**“... So… How are you?”**

Nines’ voice broke the stifling silence, and Gavin flicked his head up. There was now a metallic edge to his voice, but in good news, his LED wasn’t flashing quite so aggressively.

_“You’re a right royal pain in the ass, you know that, right?”_  
**“... Royal, as in… The colour of my blood? Is… Are you joking?”**  
_“Partially. I mean, you’ve been shot and are on death’s door, I’m trying to keep you awake so you don’t actually die on me, and I’m probably pretty clearly freaking out - and your response to all this is ‘how are you?’.”_

Nines snorted again, and a weak but cheeky grin made its way onto his face.

_**“I am not going to die, Detective.”** _

Gavin admired Nines’ conviction, he really did. Sometimes, though, that conviction made him seem delusional.

_“Mmmm. Sure. That wound on your chest totally isn’t a punctured lung.”_  
**“... Is it?”**  
_“That’s why you’re wheezing. Does your fancy HUD thing not tell you that?”_  
**“... It’s telling me organ 233, has… Been critically injured. I… I wasn’t aware that… That was my lung.”**

Gavin sighed, and readjusted his position so he was slightly more comfortable. Not that you could truly be comfortable on this type of floor, of course, but it was indefinitely better than a punctured lung. He’d actually had a punctured lung at some point, and he knew the android wasn’t exaggerating how much it hurt.

_“Yes, that is your lung, you moron. If I were a lesser man, I’d say you are totally screwed.”_  
**“... You mean, you’re not… A lesser man?”**  
_“What the fu - no, I’m not!”_  
**“... Could’ve fooled me…”**

Gavin groaned. Nines couldn’t see clearly, was wheezing and bleeding literally everywhere, but was being nothing short of a little shit. Gavin knew it now - he’d be totally fine, as he said he would. It just took him being a little shit to convince him of that.

_“Sometimes, I cannot stand you.”_

If Nines had noticed the fondness in Gavin’s voice, he didn’t say anything. The medics arrived fairly soon after his LED had finally stopped flashing, and sent Gavin back to the bullring to wait. It was 4:14am by the time Gavin was (forcefully) sent back to the bullring, but he honestly couldn’t care less. Connor arrived a few moments later, red blood spattered on his jaw and wearing the most murderous expression Gavin had ever seen. It took Gavin even longer to convince Connor that Nines would be fine than it had taken Nines to convince him. Although, he supposed, that was another thing that ran in the family. Sheer bullheadedness and the refusal to be told no (alongside stubbornness, slight narcissism, extreme recklessness when it came to themselves, love of the more dangerous things - and dogs - and overt sarcasm in highly inappropriate situations). When Connor finally managed to get his head around it, Gavin did something that set off all alarm systems in Connor’s head - he hugged him. Connor stiffened, and relaxed painfully slowly, but eventually hugged the detective back. A medic came in to inform Fowler of Nines’ condition, and upon seeing Fowler’s relieved smile, matching grins bloomed on Gavin’s and Connor’s faces.

Whatever didn’t kill Nines (or Connor) had better fucking run. And, if Gavin had never ended the call with Fowler and Fowler had heard the whole thing, he didn’t say a word.

**Author's Note:**

> The fic’s title comes from BTS’ ‘Save ME’.
> 
> /////
> 
> So, here we are at the end!
> 
> \- The RK900, who I always call ‘Caleb’ (again, he is named ‘Nines’ where this fic is concerned) is, if family at all to Connor, his little brother (as evidenced by the bad ending of Detroit: Become Human - so I made him his little brother for this fic.
> 
> \- I have absolutely no idea how gunshot wounds work. Please take every description of Nines’ injury with a grain of salt.
> 
> \- Nines’ only real injuries are the gunshot wound and punctured lung. The fallout, however, is moderate to severe bloodloss, shortness of breath / difficulty breathing, moderate to complete loss of vision / blurred vision, and feeling very faint. All of those are caused by bloodloss, apparently. Blame Google if I’m wrong.
> 
> \- There aren’t enough fics where Connor is a good brother (or even a brother at all) to Nines, so I decided to make this one have some brotherly RK siblings.
> 
> \- The tracker in Nines’ shoe, placed there by Connor, comes directly from the 2015 Man from UNCLE film, wherein Ilya places a tracker in Napoleon’s shoe so he can find him again later.
> 
> \- I see Hank and Connor as familial (Hank as Connor’s surrogate father, Connor as Hank’s surrogate son), and I didn’t really want to come a cropper with the Hankcon fandom, which is why Hank is not present in this fic.
> 
> /////
> 
> I’m on Twitter and I take fic commissions, DM me here:  
> \- [Helga Heason](https://twitter.com/HelgaHeason)
> 
> Help support my work by buying me a coffee here:  
> \- [Helga Heason Ko-Fi](https://ko-fi.com/helgaheason)


End file.
